STREB EXTREME ACTION

The members of Elizabeth Streb’s company, STREB EXTREME ACTION, combine virtuosity and technical skill with openhearted popular appeal. Founded in New York City in 1985 by choreographer Elizabeth Streb, the company has traveled, artistically as well as geographically, from the heights of the experimental dance world to the cutting-edge of popular entertainment.

Come in and watch the process as it unfolds and if you have a great idea let us know. STREB believes that the cross section of activity in our space feeds the creativity. Bring lunch and use our WiFi! Large groups of 10 or more guests please contact education@streb.org to make your reservation

“My investigation of movement has led me to choices which vary from traditional norms. My dancers and I see the rehearsal as a laboratory for testing scientific principles on the body. We invent action ideas which we think are archetypal, noticeable, understandable. The outcome is a mixture of slam dancing, exquisite and amazing human flight and a wild action sport which captures kids, older people and the general public’s hearts and minds and bodies.”

Elizabeth Streb

Extreme Action Heroes

Fabio TavaresAssociate Artistic Director

Fabio A. Tavares da Silva began his career flying as an acrobat in his native Brazil after running away with the circus at age 15. Since moving to NYC in 1999, Fabio has been fortunate enough to have worked and performed with Miguel Gutierrez, Chameckilerner, Yvonne Meier, Jeniffer Monson, Luis Lara Malvacias, Fischerspooner, Circus Amok, Tony Oursler, Laurie Anderson and Noemie Lafrance. Fabio is a certified Alexander Technique and Klein Technique teacher. Mr. da Silva is also a certified Zero Balancing practitioner. Fabio is extremely grateful to have been a part of STREB—EXTREME ACTION since 2003. He helped develop the POP-ACTION curriculum taught at SLAM and is also an adjunct Professor at PACE University. Mr. da Silva maintains a busy private practice as a healer and movement specialist in NYC and abroad. For more information, go to www.FabioNYC.com.

Leonardo Giron TorresAction Hero

Leonardo is an adventure seeker who’s been flying high with STREB since 2007. He developed a fascination with movement at a young age, while in his native Colombia, as a competitive gymnast and later discovered dance, his true passion. He is a graduate of George Mason University where he earned a BA in Dance. Currently, Leonardo works as an independent personal trainer where he further explores his movement interests. He wishes to thank his closest friends and loved ones for all their love and support.

Cassandre JosephAction Hero

Cassandre Joseph was born and raised in Brooklyn. She began training in artistic gymnastics at the age of 4. Her career spanned 18 years, during which she earned several state, regional, and national titles. Since her retirement, Cassandre has searched for a replacement in dance, capoeira, and in performing aerial arts. She holds a B.A in English Literature from Cornell University. She’s ecstatic to have found Streb.

Jackie CarlsonAction Hero

Coming from Detroit, Michigan, Jackie has studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, tap, and gymnastics since the age of 6. She’s won many awards and scholarships in the dance competition world, including Miss Dance of Michigan in 2000, and “Most Outstanding Dancer ’01” with NYC Dance Alliance. She spent 5 consecutive summers on full scholarship at The Milwaukee Ballet School, then moved to New York City right out of high school to join The Dance Theatre of Harlem ballet company. Jackie’s dream came true when her lifetime goal of becoming a stunt double, and her love of dancing COLLIDED and STREB appeared!

Daniel RysakAction Hero

Daniel Rysak has finally found a way to exhaust his energy: STREB! The perfect fit to accommodate his adventurous appetite and artistic soul. In the past 6 years with STREB, Daniel has been fortunate enough to perform at the London and Vancouver Olympics, the Holland Dance Festival, and in Central Park at the Delacorte Theatre. Daniel never dreamed that his career would take such heights. He is grateful to his family, friends, and teachers for their support and belief in him, but knows ultimately you have to believe in yourself. Daniel is honored to be making contributions to the evolution of human flight.

Felix HessAction Hero

Felix has been a member of the Streb Company since 2012. A graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, studying Dance and Theatre, he has had the privilege to be a part of many workshops and performance experiences in both theatre and film. Past projects include; Unbound (@InstaMiniseries), Girl Most Likely (Film), Rain Cloud (Suzanna Choffel), Possible (Chrissi Poland), Madonnathon (Brooklyn Bowl), GiG: Caleb Hawley (Workshop & Highline Ballroom), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Regional), Cats (National Tour). In addition to being a Streb Company member, Felix is a PopAction and Parkour instructor at SLAM, Brooklyn. For more of his adventures follow him on Instagram (@Felixs_journey).

Jamarious StewartAction Hero

Jamarious has always been on the move. Originally from Huntsville Alabama, he began his gymnastics career at a young age and hasn’t stopped since. He found new heights by adding dance, which has given grace and beauty to the accomplished performer you see today. He developed a strong passion for dance and continued to fulfill his dream while on scholarship at the University of Alabama (UA) where he studied Dance and Psychology. At UA he worked with national choreographers and renowned companies such as American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theater of Harlem and The Jose Limon Foundation. After moving to New York in 2013, he made his home as an Action Hero with STREB, where physical athleticism and beauty of movement are combined.

Loganne BondAction Hero

Loganne Bond is dance artist, social media strategist, arts administrator, and mass communicator extraordinaire. A graduate of The Ohio State University, with a BFA in dance and a BA in Communication, Loganne spends her time performing, creating, innovating. Her work might reach you via email, Facebook post, awesome instagram photo, on a stage, warehouse, or your neighborhood stoop. She was awarded the 2015 GO! Emerging Artist Commissioning Residency and currently spends a lot of time at the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics teaching, administrating, lending a hand wherever needed, and learning how to fly.

Matt McEwenAction Hero

Born and raised in Florida, Matt discovered his love for dance a little later than most. At the age of 19 he took his first dance class at Cameron Dancenter. Soon after he began to study at Santa Fe College. But it wasn’t until 2013 that the drive to push his body to the extreme was defined, when he was introduced to STREB and later performed with them the Fall For Dance Festival. Always one to live in the “what if” and the “I wonder if I can…” lifestyle, he has finally found an environment to immerse himself in movement and stretch the boundaries of his body and mind. This is “Bandana Matt’s” second season with STREB.

Collaborators

Zaire Baptista (DJ/MC)

Zaire Baptiste is a multi-disciplinary artist that has been a part of the Streb Extreme Action for over 10 years producing visual and audio content as well as performing movement with the company. Zaire’s athletic football background has helped him fit in with Elizabeth Streb’s extreme action movement. Known as “The Voice of Streb” Zaire has been DJ/VJ and MC now Zaire will curate the sound talent as a part of Elizabeth Streb’s show SEA, presenting DJs and producers playing sounds to accompany the pop action movement. Zaire is set to showcase sound and movement for Streb’s latest Slam Show.

Laura Flanders (Larry Walter Text)

Laura is a long-time journalist, author and media activist. She wrote the New York Times bestseller Bushwomen: Tales of a Cynical Species (2004, Verso) and Blue Grit: Making Impossible, Improbable, and Inspirational Political Change in America, (2007, The Penguin Press.) She’s the founder and host of GRITtv. You can find out more at lauraflanders.com and follow her on Twitter @GRITlaura.

Ms Harrington received the Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle and American Theatre Wing Awards for the projections in The Who’s Tommy. Other Broadway credits: Amy’s View, The Good Body, Civil War, Putting it Together. Freak, Ragtime, The Capeman, Racing Demon, Company, Having Our Say, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only, and Their Playing Our Song. Off Broadway: Les MIZrahi (Visual Director), As Thousands Cheer, Merrily We Roll Along (3 times!) Hapgood, and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Opera: Brundibar, Grapes of Wrath, Nixon in China, A View From The Bridge, The Photographer, The Magic Flute, Ghosts of Versailles, Rusalka, Orpheo ed Euridice Ballet: Anna Karenina, Othello Ballet Mecanique, Concert: Stop Making Sense, The Talking Heads, Ira Gershwin at 100,Carnegie Hall, Simon and Garfunkel Old Friends Tour, Chris Rock. Sports: Player introductions for the New York Knicks, Rangers and Liberty at Madison Square Garden. Ms Harrington is the recipient of the 1995 Obie Award for excellence in projection design and the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration. The former design director of Esquire Magazine, she produced Words on Fire for PBS and two fine daughters. She lectures widely on Projection design and is on the faculty of the Yale school of Drama.

Andrea Lauer (Costume Design)

Broadway: American Idiot. Off Broadway: Unnatural Acts (Classic Stage),’Or (Women’s Project), The Butcher of Baraboo (Second Stage Uptown), Elephant Dreams (Joyce), Status Entropus (NYC, Greece), Our Lady of 121st Street, and Hair (NYU). Touring: Bring It On, the Musical National Tour, American Idiot, National Tour. Regional: TRU (Baystreet), Bring It On, the Musical (Alliance Theatre) American Idiot (Berkeley Rep), Selected Alley Theatre Credits (Houston, TX): The Crucible, After the Fall, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Steel Magnolias, Soccer Moms (Fleetwood Stage). She also designs for dance: The Trey McIntyre Project, STREB (Kiss the Air!, FORCES), and is a fashion stylist. Her fashion designs have been published in Fashionable Technology by Sabine Seymour and her styling work has been seen in the 2010 April issue of American Vogue, and on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. M.F.A. NYU (Baryshnikov Fellow)

Jim Lewis (Book)

Jim wrote and co-conceived FELA!, winner of 11 TONY nominations on Broadway, and 3 Oliviers for the National Theatre production in London. He personally received nominations for both “Best Musical” and “Best Book for a Musical” for these productions. Prior to that, Jim also received a Lortell Award for “Outstanding Musical” for FELA! and an unprecedented two Drama Desk nominations in the same year for “Best Book” for both FELA! and This Beautiful City (w/ The Civilians). FELA! recently completed a two-year worldwide tour. Other selected works. Broadway: Chronicle of a Death Foretold (TONY, Drama Desk nominations); and Dangerous Games (both w/ Graciela Daniele). Off Broadway/Regional: Tango Apaisionado; Ionesco’s The Chairs; Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea. Opera/Dance: Paul Dresher’s The Tyrant; Ballet Hispanico’s Nightclub; Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles;PastFORWARD (w/ Mikhail Baryshnikov). Dramaturg: House Arrest (Anna Deavere Smith); Drawn to Death (Art Spiegelman); Cymbeline and Waste (w/ Bartlett Sher); Lincoln Center’s WOZA AFRIKA Festival. W/ Bill T. Jones: Dream On Monkey Mountain, Chapel/Chapter, and Still/Here (20th Anniversary Season.

Erik Pearson (Video Design)

Erik Pearson is a director and projection designer. He has directed in New York for Playwrights Realm, American Opera Projects, HERE, terraNOVA, Studio NYC, New York Theater Experiment, Lark and NYU/Tisch, as well as regionally for Shakespeare Theatre Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz and BRAVA! He has designed projections in New York for SOHO Playhouse, Intar, STREB and the new musical Heading East with B.D. Wong. Regionally he has designed for El Paso Opera, The Magic, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Marin Theatre Company and Center Rep as well as Moorehouse/Spellman College, Brandeis Theater Company and The University of California at Santa Cruz where he taught theatrical projection design. Upcoming: Directing Billy Witch, a new play by Gregg Moss, for Studio 42. Erik holds an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama. www.elpearson.com

Alex Rappoport (Cinematographer)

Alex Rappoport is an award-winning cinematographer, editor, and independent video producer specializing in documentary filmmaking. Since 2009 he has been the director of photography for History Channel’s Swamp People series. From 1996 to 2001 he produced numerous segments for WNET’s City Arts and PBS’s Egg: The Arts Show. More recently he has directed and shot several music videos, image spots for the Sundance Channel and Nick Jr., documentary shorts for Etsy.com and Gallery HD, and produced multiple interstitial programs for the Sundance Channel. In the early 1990’s, Alex shot and/or cut numerous promotional pieces for MTV, VH1, USA Network, Nickelodeon, and The Sci-Fi Channel. As a director of photography he has numerous broadcast credits including National Geographic, The History Channel, PBS, Food Network, VOOM, and several Emmy Award-winning programs for HBO and HBO Family.

As a lighting designer, Mr. Wierzel has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theatre, dance, contemporary music, museums and opera on stages throughout the country and abroad. Robert has a long collaboration (26 years) with choreographer & director Bill T. Jones and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. His other dance collaborations include works with choreographers Elizabeth Streb, Liz Gerring; Andrea Miller/Gallim Dance Company; Doug Varone; Larry Goldhuber and Heidi Latsky; Sean Curran; Molissa Fenley; Donna Uchizono; Alonzo King; Charlie Moulton; Arthur Aviles; Margo Sappington; the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. Productions with the opera companies of Paris-Garnier; Tokyo; Toronto; Bergen & Kristiansand, Norway; Folk Opera, Sweden; Glimmerglass Festival; New York City Opera; Seattle; Boston Lyric; Minnesota; San Francisco; Houston; Washington; Virginia; Chicago Lyric; Montreal; Vancouver; Florida Grand; Portland, among others. His theatre work has been seen on and off Broadway, including the musical Fela! (Tony Award nomination) and at the Royal National Theatre of London, UK. Robert’s extensive theatre work includes productions at most major regional theatres within the country, from New York to San Francisco.

Brandon Wolcott (Sound Design)

Brandon has composed music and designed sound for dance and theater at dozens of productions around NYC and the U.S. Recent/Notable productions include: Hit the Wall at Barrow Street. Henry V at Two River (Original Music). Kiss the Air at The Park Avenue Armory. Titus Andronicus at The Public (Original Music). The Maids with Red Bull. The Tenant with the Woodshed Collective. NYC credits include: MTC, The Public, Ontological, The Joyce, LaMama, DTW, Clubbed Thumb, 59e59, PS122, 3LD, New Ohio and many more…

Robert Woodruff (Associate Director)

Robert Woodruff has directed over 60 productions across the U.S. at theatres including Lincoln Center Theater, Public Theater and BAM. Most recently, he directed Celebration at the Hungarian State Theater in Cluj, Bergmans Autumn Sonata at Yale Rep and Madame White Snake for Opera Boston, which premiered at The Beijing Music Festival. Internationally, his work has been seen at the Habimah National Theatre in Israel, Sydney Arts Festival, Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Festival of the Arts, Jerusalem Festival and Spoleto Festival USA. Early work includes many premiere productions with Sam Sheppard including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child. He is currently on the faculty of Yale School of Drama. United States Artists named Woodruff a 2007 USA Biller Fellow.

STREB Extreme Action Company History

For more than three decades, STREB has performed in theaters large and small and served as artists-in-residence at the world’s top art museums. At the same time, STREB has taken its work into the streets and sports stadiums: at Grand Central Station; in front of the Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island’s fairground; under the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage; as part of V-Day at Madison Square Garden; during halftime at a Seattle Sonics basketball game; at the Minneapolis Metrodome; on the mall outside the Smithsonian Institution and descending the façade of Bergdorf Goodman. The company’s extensive touring calendar has included presentations at the Lincoln Center Festival, the Fall for Dance Festival at the Delacorte Theater, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Walker Art Center, Los Angeles MOCA, the Wexner Center, Spoleto USA, the River-to-River Festival, the Barbican Center, the Theatre de la Ville, at both the Brisbane and Melbourne Festivals and in Chile, Singapore and Taiwan.

Other company highlights: in 2004 Cirque du Soleil celebrated their 20th anniversary and invited STREB to perform with them in front of 250,000 people on the streets of Montreal; in 2010, STREB was featured at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics; in 2011, the company performed ten sold-out shows at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City and was commissioned to create a new work for the Whitney Museum of American Art’s groundbreaking; in 2012, STREB was commissioned by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Mayor of London to participate in the London 2012 Festival. On “One Extraordinary Day” (July 15, 2012), from dawn to midnight, STREB dancers performed 7 action events across major London landmarks including the Millennium Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The London Eye. During summer 2015, STREB was featured at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and the Pan Am Games Arts Festival in Toronto.

In January 2003, STREB moved into a vacant former loading facility and transformed 51 North 1st Street into the STREB LAB FOR ACTION MECHANICS (SLAM). In 2007, STREB purchased SLAM with unprecedented support for building acquisition from the New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, City Council, Mayor’s Office and Brooklyn Borough President’s Office ensuring its future as the home of STREB EXTREME ACTION, the STREB PopAction School and the Espana/STREB Trapeze Academy. As a performance and presenting venue and an open access education and rehearsal space, SLAM creates community through interaction and experimentation.

Currently, over the course of a year, nearly 10,000 people come to SLAM: 7,000 audience members at nearly 60 shows; 600 students weekly at over 57 weekly classes; 1,500 city school children and community organization constituents including marginalized and at-risk youth as well as the general population; 100 artists who rent SLAM to create and present work, teach and take class; 600 tweens and teens who attend monthly SLAM ACTION CLUBs; 250 children who attend SLAM summer camp.